Rare Liberty Head nickel sells for $3M and change

An extremely rare, century-old nickel that survived a fatal car crash in 1962 and was kept tucked away in a closet for 41 years, sold at auction Thursday for $3,172,000.

The 1913 Liberty Head nickel was part of Dallas-based Heritage Auctions' Central States Numismatic Society U.S. Coins Signature Auction being held in Schaumberg, Ill. Heritage said a pre-auction estimate on the coin was for $2.5 million or more.

The winning bidders were identified as Larry Lee of Panama City, Fla., and Jeff Garrett of Lexington, Ky., who bought it in partnership.

“This particular example of one of the world's most famous rare coins is perhaps the most special of them all given its amazing story," said Todd Imhof, Executive Vice President of Heritage Auctions. “Not only is it just one of only five known, genuine 1913-dated Liberty Head design nickels, this particular one was off the radar for decades until it literally came out of the closet after a nationwide search and was authenticated by experts in a secret midnight meeting Baltimore in 2003.”

The coin was consigned by the heirs of George O. Walton, a North Carolina collector who bought it in the mid-1940s for a reported $3,750, Heritage said. Walton had the coin with him when he died in a car crash on March 9, 1962.

One of Walton's heirs, Melva Givens of Salem, Va., eventually received the coin but was told it was believed to be a fake with an altered date.

“She kept the nickel in a box with family items in the closet, and it stayed there for four decades,” Ryan Givens of Salem, Va. said. He' a nephew of Walton who consigned the coin to Heritage with his two sisters and a brother.

Although she believed that the coin was a fake, Givens also believed her brother had a real 1913 Liberty Head nickel and continued searching for it, Heritage said.

Heritage said that a minimum $1 million reward for the fifth 1913 Liberty Head nickel led Walton's heirs to take it to Baltimore in July 2003 to the American Numismatic Association World's Fair of Money, where the four other surviving 1913 nickels were scheduled to be exhibited. Experts there authenticated the coin in the secret midnight meeting.

The auction, being held through Sunday, is expected to garner more than $40 million in bids, Heritage said.